Maintenance of lawns, sport fields, playgrounds, parks, golf courses, roadsides and cemeteries represents a growing area of interest. The annual investment in time, labor, chemical treatments, fertilization and equipment for the maintenance of turfgrasses was shown in 1965 to be over 4.2 billion dollars. Additionally, it was shown in 1965 that about 50% of total annual lawn care expenditures was almost equally divided between labor (23.5%) and equipment (26.5%).
Since a significant portion of the investment in turfgrass management is devoted to labor costs, and the cost associated with purchasing, maintaining and operating maintenance equipment, it would be highly desirable to be able to supplement turfgrass management practices with chemical treatments which reduce the maintenance requirements of the grass. The development and use of chemical treatments which retard the growth of grass, and hence the frequency of mowing, reduce and inhibit heading, control undesirable weeds and are not injurious to the grass and do not alter its appearance could significantly reduce the overall maintenance costs for turfgrass management.
Advances in the development of chemical herbicide treatments for the control of weeds have resulted in a wide variety of chemicals which are suitable for weed control in turf. Advances in the field of plant growth regulators have resulted in the discovery that certain of these chemicals are suitable for use on turfgrasses For example, mefluidide, (Embark.RTM.) N-[2,4-dimethyl-5-[[(trifluoromethyl)sulfonyl]amino]phenyl]acetamide, a plant growth regulator produced by 3M Company, is registered for use as a growth and development retardant on turf and ornamental species. More recently, work in the area of turfgrass treatment has resulted in the evaluation of mixtures of chemicals in an attempt to enhance effects, improve safety margins, obtain several effects at the same time, reduce rates of application or alter the effect obtained on one specific species.
Certain chemical combinations useful as turfgrass treatments were reported by K. J. Tautvydas in the Proceedings of Tenth Annual Meeting of the Plant Growth Regulator Society, 1983. This article discloses synergistic growth retardation of Kentucky bluegrass and johnsongrass with certain mixtures of mefluidide and chlorsulfuron, 2-chloro-N-[(4-methoxy-6-methyl-1,3,5-triazin-2-yl)aminocarbonyl]benzenesu lfonamide, and a similar effect on bluegrass, johnsongrass and bermudagrass with certain mixtures of mefluidide and methyl 2-[[[[(4,6-dimethyl-2-pyrimidinyl)amino]carbonyl]amino]sulfonyl]benzoate.
While it is clear that a great deal of research and progress is being made in developing chemical compositions to aid in total turf management programs, it is also becoming clear that, due to variations in climatic conditions and differences in preferred grass varieties within these different growing regions, different treatments will probably be required on a region-to-region and species-to-species basis.